N(M)ovember - Changing the Face of Men's Health

During November, men around the world were proud to change their calendars and take part in the annual "Movember" campaign against Prostate Cancer. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer amongst Canadian Men, currently affecting 1 in every 6 men, with an expected increase to 1 in 4 within a decade¹. In 2010 alone, 24,600 Canadian men will be diagnosed and over 4,300 men will die from prostate cancer². In 2008 global numbers reached 903,000 for reported new case of prostate cancer leading to 258,000 deaths³. Prostate cancer is to men what breast cancer is to women.

Wanting to do our part, ZE PowerGroup Inc ^® (ZE) joined Movember Canada and Prostate Cancer Canada, and several male employees put down their razors on November 1st to grow a mustache to show their support for the cause. ZE team members also contributed donations to the cause, and in addition, ZE donated $25 dollars for every participating employee. This has been added to the $19.8 million that has already been raised in Canada, and the $58 million raised globally in the fight against Prostate Cancer.

ZE is focused on giving back as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility. ZE participates in many different charitable events including sponsorships, donations, and volunteer events. This past year ZE has been involved in multiple fund raising programs including our charitable donations to CARE Canada at $15,085 for Haiti Relief and $8,075 for Pakistani Relief. ZE will also be involved with raising a variety of different donations for the Richmond Food Bank as part of our giving back during the holiday season.


Some of our Movember participants. Photo taken November 30th 2010.

ZE is an experienced software and strategic consulting firm that combines energy industry expertise with advanced software development capability. The company possesses deep industry knowledge and comprehensive operational experience. ZE is the developer of the ZEMA data management and analysis solution which collects data related to coal, power, gas, crude, financial, weather, emissions, hydrology and others and is used as a business process automation and integration tool for small and large scale organizations alike. ZEMA is created by experts to meet the specific challenges faced by energy industry participants.

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¹Prostate Cancer Canada
²Canadian Cancer Society
³http://globocan.iarc.fr/factsheets/cancers/prostate.asp

Trade and Risk Systems Will Be Able To Assist Effective Decisions

Olga Gorstenko, Manager of Consulting Services for ZE PowerGroup and Bruce Colquhoun, ZE PowerGroup's ZEMA Sales Manager, attended the APPrO (Association of Power Producers of Ontario) Conference which was held in Toronto on November 16-17, 2010. The conference focused on the Ontario's Green Energy Act and issues associated with its implementation. The event attracted over 1,200 attendees, with a majority of which representing the renewable power sector. The political aspect of the public policy was the core issue under review.

According to Olga, the representatives expressed interest in the effects from renewable generation expansion, with the emphasis on financing, environmental concerns and future development of the Feed-in Tariff (FIT) and generation procurement programs. Also she said that the participants discussed system reliability, transmission expansion and upgrades, and distributed generation connections with the grid.

Bruce participated as a speaker on a panel and outlined his vision of the role of Data Management Systems (DMS). In particular, he emphasized that improved DMS will allow companies to continue to make effective decisions in the face of ever increasing data. "It is an increasing importance to automate properly the collection and analysis of data and the ability to integrate with trade and risk systems. Companies that do this effectively will have a distinct advantage by being able to take decisive actions based upon highly complex data sets with greater confidence and speed. DMS will be the engines that drive this," said Bruce.

ZE PowerGroup was the Technical Sponsor of the event and was pleased with the turn out.

2010 Commodity Business Awards Voting

ZE PowerGroup^® has been shortlisted for the 2010 Commodity Business Awards. If you would like to vote for ZEMA, it is very simple and quick – you only need to click on this link: Commodity Business Awards.

Once there scroll down a bit and click on Data Management which is located under Commodity Market Development (the link will expand once you click on the words) and select “ZE PowerGroup / ZEMA”. Then you only have to enter your name, company, email and sector. You are also entered in to win an iPad on the site. Voting is now open and concludes on Friday October 22nd, 2010.

One More Record Year for ZE PowerGroup: Annual Report Highlights

ZE PowerGroup Inc. ^® (ZE), the developer of award-winning ZEMA Suite ™, announced that its recently compiled financial report indicates one more record year. For the fiscal year ending May 31, 2010, all key performance indicators of the company have reached new highs in revenue, income, human resources, research expense and net profit; exceeding the 2009 levels by at least 25% in each category. A better indicator of ZE's growth is measured by the performance during the recent economic crisis. Over the past two years ZE has more than doubled its software client base by over 50%.

ZE's client profile has also broadened. The ZEMA software is being used by utilities, hedge funds, financial institutions, large industrials, marketers and multinational organizations across all commodity classes. As an example of ZEMA's success, over the last two quarters of operation alone, ZE has supported the addition of 13 new implementations.

In terms of product offerings, ZE has released a substantially enhanced version of the ZEMA Dashboard and developed a robust derivative forward curve building and workflow engine. Further, ZEMA has extended its services and APIs, helping to create generic interfaces to several downstream ETRM and analytical systems. Upcoming releases include SQL Server support and ZEMA 4.0.

Dr. Zak El-Ramly, President and CEO of ZE elaborated on last year's performance, "What is encouraging is the ability to grow our client base while we are expanding our products and services in addition to sustaining the high quality of service, as measured by our clients. This stable growth is fully funded by ZE's own earnings without resorting to third party financing in any form."

Waleed El-Ramly, COO of Product Development comments on ZEMA's success, "I think that the uptake by the industry of ZEMA is because the market is starting to realize that our software is aligned with their existing technical architecture and their business goals. Our system is very robust and the ease of implementation is something that they are very happy with and have not experienced in the past. Integration with a client's own processes and systems doesn't have to be a risky, lengthy or expensive exercise. ZEMA provides our clients with access to all the market data they need, is supported by strong software tools and the expert advice that is required to make clients' projects successful."

In the early part of 2010 ZEMA has been highlighted in the "Cool Vendors in Energy and Utilities" industry research put out by Gartner, Inc. and has been awarded “Data Management House of the Year” by Energy Risk, for a second year in a row (2009 and 2010), and was ranked against its competitors as #1 for preferred system, #1 for ease of system integration and #1 customer service in the annual Energy Risk Software Survey. In recognition of its role as a technological leader in the industry, ZE is holding its first ZEMA User Forum and organizing a conference for "Enterprise Data Management for Energy and Commodities" in October.

The outlook for ZE for the coming year is very bright. With strong revenues, government research and development funding and a healthy pipeline of prospective clients, ZE is preparing to take on the challenges that come with success while continuing to maintain its high level of customer service and support.

ZE PowerGroup Is Winning Awards at an Extraordinary Pace

One of the leaders in software for enterprise data management in the energy sector, ZE PowerGroup Inc.^® (ZE) is receiving awards at an extraordinary pace. In a few months, three separate awards were given to the company, putting it in a category that few if any have ever occupied:

• In March, the company’s ZEMA Suite™ software for Enterprise Data Management was voted “number one” in all three Data Management categories in Energy Risk’s Software Survey. This made ZEMA the first system to rank #1 in all categories of Data Management.
  
• A few months later at the Energy Risk Conference in Houston on May 25th, ZEMA was named Data Management House of the Year by Energy Risk magazine, for the second year in a row. Energy Risk magazine is part of Incisive Media, which is described as “one of the world’s leading B2B information providers, serving the financial and professional services markets globally.”
  
• In addition, ZE was selected as a “Cool Vendor” in the Cool Vendors in Energy and Utilities 2010 report by Gartner, Inc. The report describes ZE’s software product ZEMA as one of four emerging technologies that are positioned to help the “energy and utility market sector to leverage technology to improve operational efficiency while addressing energy sustainability issues”.